One Room Challenge Spring 2022 - Week 1 - The Laundry “Room”
I am so excited to share with all of you that I signed up for the One Room Challenge (or ORC) this spring and I can’t wait to share the process (and end result) with you all! If you aren’t sure what the ORC is, its an 8 week challenge where bloggers, DIYers, and Designers makeover any room in 8 weeks. This is the 10 year anniversary and I’m so excited to be a guest participant, although I’m already technically a day behind. (Oops!) I’m not sure my husband is thrilled with me taking this on, as our basement bathroom project is still not quite complete (although it’s close!), but hopefully he will love the end result.
My husband and I made a deal when we got married that I would do the dishes, and he would do the laundry - and it’s worked well for us so far (married 10 years now, so I feel like its a good system). I am completing this project with him in mind as my client, which (fingers crossed) should (maybe?) help make it easier for me to make decisions since I only seem to struggle with indecisiveness when completing projects for myself.
The Before
Our laundry “room” is located in the basement and is just off of the garage entrance. I put room in quotes, because it’s really a hallway that connects the stairs to the rest of the basement, which is where my office and our guest bed/bath are located. It’s functional, in that you can do laundry in the space, but storage is subpar and no one would call it an attractive space. Here are some photos of the space as is - you can see it leaves a lot to be desired, and since it functions as a hallway, a LOT of people see this space (the drink fridge is in the garage, so even guests come through here regularly).
The floor is Vermont Slate, and the actual tile is in good shape, it’s just really really dirty from years of neglect. The drywall has damage from updating plumbing and moving of outlets for other projects. The drop ceiling is stained and very basic, but needs to stay since it allows access to the kitchen plumbing. The carpet on the stairs is stained so badly that you can see the two different colors even in the photos, and that single surface mount light is the only lighting in the space (and its not great).
The Plan
We did replace the washer and dryer when we moved in 2.5 years ago, so those are staying, but this is what I hope to accomplish during this challenge:
Replace the cabinetry above the dryer
Add some open shelves
Repair the drywall
Add some additional mud room storage on the opposite wall (ikea hack coming your way!)
Replace the ceiling tiles
Add lighting
Refurbish the slate floors
Paint
Possibly replace the carpet on the stairs.
Wow - that’s a lot.
I always start every project with a concept board to help make sure everything works together and that I’m making decisions that will be cohesive. Here is our preliminary concept board for the space:
I am so excited to get started on this space and share the progress with you as we go through the process. I’ll also be updating on Instagram (@brittanytharpinteriors) so feel free to follow me there as well! Also, there are hundreds of others participating in this challenge as well and they are so inspiring and talented! You should head on over to One Room Challenge to check out some of the other participants and their projects (who knows? maybe you’ll be inspired to join us!)!
